PEORIA — In one of those sweet coincidences of life, an old football coach suggested the nickname “Two” even before Deveraux Hubbard II was born.

The nickname stuck, and Two grew up to love football, particularly Richwoods High School football, where he was a starting guard on a winning team.

Neither he nor his family knew he carried the most common hereditary cause of abnormal blood clotting. Nor did his family realize how special he was to so many people.

The various parts of Two’s life — high school, football, Eagle Scout, college, friends, family — came together at his funeral last year at St. Paul Baptist Church, where his father, Deveraux Hubbard, is pastor. The parts of Two’s life will undoubtedly come together again Aug. 9 for “Stop the Clot, Run, Walk or Trot,” an event to raise awareness about blood clots and clotting disorders.

Naturally, it is at Richwoods, in Two’s honor.

The story behind Deveraux and Kristie Hubbard’s mission to raise money for scholarships and awareness about blood clots is a story of love, loss, life and the legacy of a 19-year-old.

“As a parent, you know your child as your child. You don’t get to see the breadth of the person,” the elder Hubbard said. “I’m more proud of him in death than I was, probably, in life.”

His wife edited his words with a soft touch. “More proud of him in death than we had an opportunity to be in life,” she said.

“Yes, yes,” her husband agreed as he began recounting touching stories dozens of Two’s friends and acquaintances have told him.

There was the girl he passed in the high school hallway. He gave her a Snickers candy bar because he thought she looked sad. The boy who had “Two” tattooed on his back because he considered Two a mentor. The boy’s only other tattoo was in memory of his grandfather.

An overflow crowd spilled out of the 1,400-seat sanctuary into the gym and the chapel of the church during his funeral.

Two died Dec. 16, 2013. A sophomore at Southern Illinois University, he was home on Christmas break.

A 12-inch blood clot traveled from his leg to his lungs, his mother said, causing a pulmonary embolism.

Since then, the Hubbards have learned how common blood clots are, how risky they can be. More importantly for the family, they’ve learned heredity can play a role in increased risk of clotting, as it does in their case.

Two had an inherited condition, Factor Five Leiden. It is a mutation that causes a clotting factor in the blood to work over time, creating a higher risk of blood clots, said Dr. Michael Tarantino, medical director of Peoria’s Bleeding and Clotting Disorders Institute.

The family has since learned Two’s father and his younger brother have the same disorder.

“We had never heard of this until we lost our son,” Kristie Hubbard said. But now they know the signs, symptoms and what steps to take to reduce the risks.

“Swelling in the leg that’s warm? It might be a blood clot,” she said.

She credits Tarantino with introducing them to the National Blood Clot Alliance, an education and prevention organization that’s co-sponsoring the event. The group will receive proceeds from the Stop the Clot race. He also will speak at the event.

“The bottom line is we want to prevent other families from suffering the way we’re suffering,” Kristie Hubbard said.

Part of the proceeds also will go to the Deveraux Hubbard II Foundation, which already has funded three $500 scholarships for Richwoods graduates.

Two would have wanted the family to support education, his parents said.

His Eagle Scout project was “Books for Ballers,” a three-on-three basketball tournament for grade school students. Before students could play basketball, they had to read 30 minutes in the gym and complete lessons on Compass Learning System, an online education program used by Peoria School District 150.

Two collected about 1,000 books for the project — another part of his legacy.

Stop the Clot Run, Walk, Trot

Ask someone if they know someone who has hemophilia, then ask them if they know someone who has had a blood clot, says Dr. Michael Tarantino, medical director of the Bleeding and Clotting Disorders Institute in Peoria.

The answer indicates how common blood clots are, he said. But many people aren’t aware of the prevalence or the risks.

Smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity can increase the chances of developing blood clots, he said. But people can be born with conditions that increase the risk, such as Factor Five Leiden, the most common hereditary cause.

Tarantino will speak at a benefit to raise awareness about blood clotting.